Krasovsky pointed out that there are “problems in approach of
police in encounters with African-American suspects” in the
wake of the Department of Justice report that focused on police shootings and
the reforms that need to be brought to officer training and the
way cases are handled.

Based on police officers' primary training, which involves cases
of encounters with violent suspects, "you have to respond to
the force that’s being used against you by the suspect with
commensurate force,” lawyer and ex-police officer told RT.

However, what happens is that “police officers are
disproportionately using lethal force by discharging their
firearms against African-American suspects, who perhaps do not
present a lethal threat to them.”

He added that police shoot suspects who are armed with only a
screwdriver or a knife or a stick, which is wrong because
“police could have resolved and disabled the suspect without
shooting him, in most cases.”

But officer training is not the only issue at stake – so is
accountability.

“What the last 20 or 30 years have shown is that any time a
police officer uses lethal force and shoots or kills a suspect,
even if he’s wrong, chances are nothing will happen to him, and
he will receive what we call “a slap on the wrist,” he said.

The report demonstrated how investigations are handled "and
what happens if the internal affairs bureau of the police
department decides that the use of force was justified, or if the
district attorney refuses to press criminal charges against the
police officer. In Philadelphia, it would be extremely rare for
the District Attorney’s Office, which is extremely pro-police, to
[do that] in the event of there being any doubt as to the
justifiability of shooting a suspect,” he said.

Krasovsky served as a Philadelphia policeman for several years
and “had a number of suspects who threatened me with knives,
with screwdrivers who tried to stab me.” He described the
way he dealt with those situations, and why many others didn’t
act in the same way.

“I didn’t shoot any of those people. I disarmed them with my
hands. Other police officers that I knew would have shot them –
either because they didn’t have enough training, or because they
were afraid, or because they were angry or hateful, or resentful
against African-American suspects – and that's a lethal
combination,” former policeman said.

He added that the same applies to vehicles, as suspects usually
try to get away from police in their vehicle, and “there is a
threat that you could be dragged by the vehicle.”

However, Krasovsky noted that if he shot those vehicles every
time, he would have killed several people.

“I didn’t do that because I didn’t believe it was justified;
to kill a person because they’re trying to get away from you in a
car, even if it’s a stolen car,” he said.

When asked why so many shootings result in the death of a
suspect, Krasovsky said that police are trained to shoot at the
suspect’s torso.

“You shoot at the center of the chest – that’s where the
heart is – because that’s the quickest way to neutralize a
suspect. Unfortunately, neutralization will often lead to
death,” he said.

“And now, when police officers carry semi-automatic pistols
that carry 15 or more bullets, they are not shooting at a suspect
one, or two, or three times. One police officer will fire 10, 12
rounds,” Krasovsky added.

Also, what matters is that not everyone has the option to use
non-lethal weapons while encountering a suspect, he said.

“In other police departments, police officers carry mace,
which is basically pepper spray, and it doesn’t often happen in
Philadelphia. More importantly, the Philadelphia police don’t
carry the Taser electronic stun guns. Only selected supervisors
who have completed training carry Tasers, so a police officer
doesn’t even have an option of using a Taser stun gun on a
suspect,” Krasovsky added.

“Residents of high-crime communities are already looking at
police almost as occupants, as in those areas a very high percent
of residents have either been arrested themselves, or have
relatives who have been arrested and have criminal records. But
more importantly, residents of those neighborhoods often know the
true level of police brutality and excessive use of force by
police, so that creates additional resentment and lack of
trust,” Krasovsky told RT.